Iran International:

The appointment of Iranian and Chinese diplomats to the UN Human Rights Council's advisory committee has stoked backlash from critics of the global body and Iran citing the two countries' harsh rights record.

Iran’s Afsaneh Nadipour and China’s Ren Yisheng were among seven experts selected on Tuesday for the council’s advisory committee, which is tasked with providing guidance on human rights issues.

US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said the new appointments were “ludicrous,” questioning how governments accused of severe abuses could advise the UN on human rights.

"How do you expect countries such as China and Iran to advise this organization on human rights?” he wrote on X, adding that “one is exporting terrorism and jailing women, and the other is throwing ethnic minorities in concentration camps.”

Hillel Neuer, chief of pro-Israel watchdog UN Watch, told Fox News Digital that the United Nations “elected Beijing’s and Tehran’s loyal agents as ‘human rights experts’—without a ballot, without shame,” saying both “persecute minorities, jail anyone who speaks freely, and rule through fear and censorship.”

Iranian-American activist Lawdan Bazargan condemned Nadipour’s selection, calling it “a slap in the face to the courageous women of Iran.”

“She has served a regime that forces hijab, allows child marriage and imprisons women’s rights activists,” Bazargan wrote on X.

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